Joanna Philbin's Final Exam Brownies

These brownies are not messing around. Four squares of unsweetened chocolate melted with a full cup of butter create a deeply fudgy base, and then everything gets piled in: mini marshmallows, chopped pecans, and chocolate chips or M&Ms scattered through the batter and on top.

Unsweetened chocolate is the right call here. With two cups of sugar in the mix, you need that bitter, intense cocoa punch to keep the brownies from tasting like candy. The balance between the dark chocolate base and all the sweet mix-ins is what makes these work.

More chocolate chips pressed into the top before baking melt into a shiny, slightly crunchy layer on the surface while the marshmallows underneath turn gooey and stretchy in the center.

Pro Tips

• Use room temperature eggs. Cold eggs can seize the melted chocolate-butter mixture and create a grainy batter.
• Don’t overbake. Pull at 40 minutes and test with a toothpick. These should be fudgy, not cakey. A few moist crumbs on the pick is what you’re looking for.
• Let them cool completely in the pan before cutting. The marshmallows and chocolate need time to set, or each piece is a gooey, shapeless mess.
• Grease the pan generously. With all that melted chocolate and marshmallow, these stick hard to an under-greased surface.

Variations

• Use peanut butter chips in place of some chocolate chips for a chocolate-peanut butter brownie.
• Swap pecans for walnuts or skip the nuts entirely for a nut-free version.
• Swirl a few tablespoons of caramel sauce into the batter before baking for a salted caramel brownie.